The Strange, Dark Life of Edwin Arlington Robinson - (Biography)
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- čas přidán 27. 05. 2024
- This film presents the dark, lonely life of one of America's greatest poets, Edwin Arlington Robinson. Living in abject poverty, crippled by alcoholism, he brought American poetry into the Twentieth century and found success in a sudden and miraculous intervention. He ended his career as one of the most respected American poets of his generation. After his death Robert Frost said, "Robinson's theme was unhappiness itself. But his skill was as happy as it was playful. There is that comforting thought for those who suffered to see him suffer."
If E.A. Robinson is a new poet to you, I recommend starting with his collected poems.
For more videos on poetry you can subscribe to my CZcams channel here: / @danagioia6943
Twitter: @DanaGioiaPoet
I learned of E.A. Robinson through the poem of Richard Cory--Its situational inscrutable ironic end will always be the greatest in poetic structure for me! No wonder that it won the Pulitzer prize and took America by storm!
Beautifully told. Dramatically told. Well, well done. Thank you.
One of my favorite American poets. Glad I came across his work in college.
It was exactly fifty years ago as young university freshman in Boston just across the river from you that I discovered Richard Cory and Miniver Cheevy and my life was changed forever, no more shame. And that was just to mention two, when words jump out and hit you in the face! Thank you for the "joy" this brought to me.
What a fascinating talk about an extraordinary man. Maybe you could do a series of talks on American poets Mr. Gioia. Just a suggestion.
Incredible content. Thank you for showing me Robinson
Hi Dana: I love Edwin Arlington Robinson's poem "Blue Girls"...thanks for posting this. Such a fine lyrical poet. As usual, the presentation is excellent. A tragic story of this poet's life, and that of his family. Nick Campbell
Fascinating -- both the film and the subject. I must read more of Mr. Robinson's work. Thanks again for these video deep-dives into the world of poetry...
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A fascinating lecture on a poet who persisted in his belief in his talent, undaunted by the seemingly insuperable obstacles that life placed in his way.
Lovely and elegantly told.
Fine presentation. There is much in this video that I had not previously known about Robinson, including just how he was put in contact with Theodore Roosevelt, or exactly how jealous Frost was of Robinson. One wonders too if his brothers could indirectly have inspired that famous poem "Richard Cory." The ghostly fadeout at the end, with a late mazurka by Chopin, is most appropriate.
Great video for a great poet. I’ve just recently discovered his beautiful work and was delighted to find this video in my recommendations! Thank you!
This was excellent. A truly captivating life and presentation.
Thanks for the brilliant intro.
Wow! As I wrote in my "Facebook" comment about the first two minutes of Gioia's presentation, I had only known about Robinson's work from "Richard Cory" and a couple of other short, easily understood anthology pieces. For me, this is the time to delve into his other work--and maybe give Edwin Arlington Robinson his due. (The only other thing I knew about Robinson was that Teddy Roosevelt had given him a cushy "job"--with the stipulation that he only show up at the Customs House and continue to work on his poems.)
If the great theme of poetry is Time, with all the loss it brings, and its quest to undo that loss through language, I know of no more heartbreaking lines than these of Robinson’s, which may have been written in remembrance of his mother: “The laugh that love could not forgive/ Is hushed, and answers to no calling.// . . . The breast where roses could not live/ Has done with rising and with falling.// The beauty, shattered by the laws/ That have creation in their keeping,/ No longer trembles at applause/ Or over children that are sleeping.// And we who delve in beauty’s lore/ Know all that we have known before/ Of what inexorable cause/ Makes Time so vicious in his reaping.” (From: “For a Dead Lady”).
Beautiful, haunting presentation, Mr. Gioia. There’s comfort, a measure of it, in knowing that Robinson was able to see his work read and honored in his lifetime. I guess he was the man who died twice.
WOW SUPER ..
My two favorite American poets are Edgar Allan Poe and Edwin Arlington Robinson. To understand why poetry is not nearly as popular now as it was in Poe's and later Robinson's era, one has only to understand that Poe and Robinson wrote for people, whereas today's poets write for other poets. Great poetry is a fusion of poetic devices, music, mythology, philosophy, and deep emotional insights. Poe and Robinson had those five disciplines down flat. Today's poets are woefully ignorant of all five.
Wow just seen that you also did the Wallace Stevens video I recently watched, seriously these videos are amazing time capsules for anybody interested in these great poets, you’re doing the world a great service!
Thank you. I spend a lot of time writing the scripts for these videos. I try to include as much as I can.
We owe a great debt to Robinson, even more than the Department of the Treasury has tallied up.
Long Robinson
Within the decade of the nineteenth’s Nineties
And the first two tens allotted the Twentieth,
You’d flex your meeting eyelids with benign squeeze
To greet this tall Maine fellow of short breath
(Cigars) and be foretold this gangly man,
Most nondescript, would write insightful verse
Destined to resonate beyond the span
Of all the Parnassus claque who will rehearse
Their vaunts with most stentorian clamorings.
His voice, you must accustom yourself to:
Raised just within earshot of his one good ear,
Half-lost against monotone the deaf ear sings
Itself. Empathic subtleties reach the few
Who, at throng’s edge, find honed wit, strain to hear.
🎼💎
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